About Henri Alexander Elias

Henri Alexander Elias (21 March 1829 – 26 February 1903) was a Dutch civil servant, who made a career in the administration on the Dutch Gold Coast. Governor of the Dutch Gold Coast

Biography

Henri Alexander Elias was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies to Burchard Joan Elias, a civil servant in the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies who later became governor of the Dutch West Indies, and Cornelia Dorothea Adelheid Scholten van Aschat, a housemaid originally from Amsterdam. Both his parents stem from prominent Dutch patrician families.[1]

Elias was appointed governor of the Dutch Gold Coast, with the titular rank of lieutenant colonel, by royal decree of 23 January 1862. He arrived in Elima in October 1862. In 1864, he was on leave in Europe for most of the year. After returning to the Gold Coast on 7 December 1864, he left for the Netherlands again on 11 May 1865. Elias was honourably discharged.[1]